Session 16
Game date July 16, 2011 Game notes * No game for the next two weeks. X & Brendan are busy next week. X is busy the week after. Game log November 25th (cont.) * Back at the camp, the smell of smoke drifts down from the canopy, though we cannot see the zeppelin anymore. Dr. Russel decides that we're turning back to the rest of the expedition since there isn't anything more we can do for Smythe with our current supplies. ** The plateau is at least 2 days journey; it took 2 days to get back after 6 days to find it after setting up the camp. ** Joan doesn't want to leave him in misery. Dr. Russel says that he plans to wait until we can radio in for some gunpowder to put a permanent end to his misery. Joan suggests using the camp's kerosene cooking supplies, but Dr. Russel worries that it might not be enough to permanently kill him if he can heal a bullet wound. ** Luo plays around for a bit with the arrows on the tree hoping to separate the connection between Smythe and the tree. He then stabs Smythe's arm as an experiment (which changes his screaming slightly). Dark sap flows out. **> "I'm just experimenting!" **> "Quit experimenting on the tormented soul." * We take the diary and the watch and leave the bag full of talismans. * We return to the camp. Early and Joan are uncharacteristically silent on the trip back. * Dr. Russel addresses the camp and tells them about the screams coming from a member of the last expedition who got "an unfavorable result" from the use of magic. He tells them that we must go to the east to rescue the zeppelin and to radio for supplies to end his suffering. Reaction is grim. (Max says it's cold to leave a guy screaming, and Dr. Russel retorts that they tried.) * He relays his story in abbreviated form to the tribesmen, letting them know that the "demon" cannot hurt them (or be hurt), and asks for directions to the plateau; we must get there to have any hope of finding a weapon that can end his suffering. He gets directions, and they part ways. * Russel notices something odd as the camp is setting up to leave. Maxwell notices that Joan is missing. He asks Masters about it. Maxwell does a cursory look around the camp and doesn't see tracks leaving. Dr. Russel asks around and finds out from Hernando that she took off with three lanterns. ** If we're going to do this, we might as well do it right. We drag a canister of 5 gallons back with us. Maxwell decides to accompany us back. We trek back after Joan. ** Before we get there, we meet Joan on the way back. Her and Dr. Russel clash, with her asking if he's decided to do the right thing yet as he shoots back, "Didn't work, did it.?" "Not yet." (She's also hauling the bag of talismans back.) * We get back, and the tree is burning slightly from the back side. Maxwell takes a look despite warning and then takes a blurry picture. He also suggests shooting Smythe to stop his pain for a while as he burns. Dr. Russel takes the shot himself and then quickly soaks that side of the tree. * As the fire licks around, I can hear the smell of burning hair. The tree burns for about 10 minutes before we start back without any screams. Some minor bickering with Joan about her going off -- her saying she had to do "the right thing" and that she can take care of herself; Dr. Russel talking about the camp not able to move forward w/o her, countering her accusations of lack of compassion, and then throwing in a jibe about whether a few hours spent on the side trip might cost lives in the zeppelin. On the way back, the screams return but then fade. * We continue traveling east. After about a day, the plateau is becomes clear. However, the way up is not clear. November 27th * On the second day, we come across a number of broken boulders. ** Apparently, when I asked the natives for directions, they mentioned these rocks, but because I couldn't hear the full details (and didn't think they were important to write down since my character should know), Dr. Russel can't remember the directions. * Standing on top of the rocks, Maxwell can see a sloping path of paved rocks up the side of the plateau. We head to the path. * The path is paved with very old cobblestones. There are crystals ground into the mortar between them. The crystal are prismatic, of all colors. ** Neither Myers nor Priestley seem to be all that surprised by it, though they are interested in the composition. * After a couple of hours, we reach the summit of the pathway. Across the flat length of the plateau, we see a few miles away a large collection of buildings. We don't see the zeppelin. Turning back to look at the jungle, we can see a vast irregular canopy, but none of the clearings look ragged. (We've ascended 1000-1500 ft.) * Dr. Russel makes a short rallying speech to press on, and Joan says a few comments to the effect of, "To think this civilization was here all along and no one knew." * Break. X arrives. * All around the path, we see nothing but barren rock. We push onwards to the camp. It takes about an hour before we're at the outskirts. The path we are on turns into a much wider road. All we can see is a dead plain, though there is the glittering of water beyond. We eventually come to a gatepost of sort with two smaller (20') arches on either side of a large middle (40') one. There is some sort of aged lettering high up that's illegible from this vantage point. We get a whiff of old smoke. ** With binoculars, we can see that the script on the arch resembles that in the drawings the last expedition brought back. * Heading into the nearby outskirts of the city, we see stone buildings which are built to a regular, similar type. The stone is light brown/grey; it seems similar to the stone we've seen exposed in the area. There are carvings over all of them. Some of the buildings are multi-story, and there are taller buildings towards the middle. They have square corners and flat walls. The roofs angle backwards from the front to the rear and are made of stone. Many of the buildings have exposed courtyards and flagstone floors. * The interiors of the buildings are dark and echo eerily. We use the second story balcony on one to look for the zeppelin. The balconies all face towards the main road, which lets us see further into the city, but not out of it. The city is at least a few miles across. * We discuss setting up camp, and Luo suggests putting up camp closer to the water. Since it's on the other side, we continue further east into the city. As we continue, the buildings grow larger. After about a quarter hour or so, we come across a large plaza; it's about a 100-150' on a side (so no landing a plane). There is an enormous building on one side to the south. On the north, there is a collapsed building. In the center of the plaza is a column of black stone with a statue of a man on top of it. In between the statue and the four corners of the plaza are four obelisks which are now cracked and pitted. There is a small amount of writing on the statue's pillar. The obelisks probably had more writing on them but are terribly damaged now. The plaza mostly runs east to west. ** The statue is standing with face looking up and the handing is pointing up and to the north to the facade of the building that has fallen apart. The face is at a 30 degree angle, which could be looking at the top of where the building once was. ** All four of the obelisks are broken. (In Letty's diary, all but one was broken.) ** The carvings on the buildings on either side of the plaza are stylistic, and not images of things. The ones on the south side are more regimented -- not quite geometric, but patterned. The ones on the north side are more flowing. To the archaeologists in the group, the level of detail despite their age and the height of the buildings rival those of classical Greek architecture. All the buildings throughout the rest of the city have carvings in the style of the southern building. * We move further east across the city. As we move further, we see the rest of the city is in ruins with cracks and crevasses and mounds of earth partially covering broken buildings. There are bits of deja vu for some of us as we walk through the ruins. The three archways struck a chord with all of us. Others of us have dreamed of the city before. * After and hour of travel, we reach the edge of the city with a canal filled with flowing water, flowing north. On the other side of the canal are verdant fields and a forest in the distance. The fields have flowers. There are small ponds with some sort of grain (rice-like?) growing in them. ** In the near distance, half a mile away, there is some blackened wreckage on the other side of the canal. ** There is no bridge across the canal, and it seems to be fairly deep, about 50' wide. ** None of the buildings in this area are still intact, and there are some basements exposed. There are no docks, but there is broken stonework that might have once been a dock on both sides of the river. * Mattheson ties a rope around his waist and dives into the canal to cross. The flow of water pushes him 30' downstream by the time he crosses. * We start setting up camp and set up an expedition to check out the wreckage. Dr. Russel, Luo, Curtis Anthony, Mattheson, Felginer (who can speak German), Longfellow (the technician), and Adams come along. ** Adams brings his camera after some deliberation about how to get it across. * We reach the downed zeppelin. The envelope is completely burned away. Most of the superstructure is scorched and crumpled. It hit the ground at a fair speed. * The ground is disturbed around the crash site away from the craft itself. There appears to be a couple of different sets of tracks around the crash (wearing shoes). There is a group of tracks that are together going towards the SE to the forest, and one heads towards the city. ** All we can see of the city from this side is rubble. ** There are no fresh graves, but some of the people leaving were wounded and left blood. * Thomas explores inside the wreckage and finds that it was the Graf Zeppelin. He finds much of the furniture and other equipment tossed about from the crash. There are canned goods in one room. In a cabin, she finds the body of a man, face-down. ** The German expedition were heard about months ago was the Barsmeier-Falken expedition, but we don't know if this is related. ** Luo inspects the body and finds that only most of the wounds can be attributed before the crash. There's some bruising and some lacerations that happened before the crash; however, they don't look defensive or self-inflicted. No marks of being restrained. The lacerations are on the upper arm and back. The bruises are on the face, chest, and the sides of the upper arms. ** His ID names him Mark Mueller. (The captain?) * We know that 2-6 people went in the larger group. We discuss whether to split the party in light of the fact that these people may be dangerous. ** Luo uses aura sight in the middle of the discussion. Adams and Russel have no change. Felginer & Longfellow have significant infection. Mattheson has a fair amount. He doesn't really see anything towards the city but a blur of aura where the expedition should be. In the fields around us, and in the distant forest, he sees only natural living auras. * We decide due to the hours left that we can only follow the trail that leads towards our camp. Maxwell argues that we make a quick search of the zeppelin first for the flares we're looking for ** Mattheson & Longfellow stay to search the zeppelin for usable supplies. ** They find the emergency kid already raided (logically) for suplies. There is a flare present but no gun for it. There are also some loose bandages left. ** Mattheson finds some scientific supplies. The engines are somewhat damaged, and their might be enough parts to scavenge, but not to put it back (theoretically) under power. There is an emergency generator hanging off the side as well. He moves to catalog the canned goods. * With the party following the trail: ** The person who left was moving at speed with little effort to disguise his trail. We lead back to the canal a little ways north of camp. If he crossed, he would have been driven to the north. ** So, we'll cross back at camp and try to pick up the trail on the other side. ** We catch up with Masters, and he offers to take Dr. Russel's place on the search. ** Meanwhile, Dr. Russel gets O'Doul to radio back to Corumba about how we've found the city, what our coordinates are to have them bring forwards all the camp supplies, and to report the wreck of the Graf Zeppelin. (Also, bring climbing supplies.) * Back with the zeppelin raiding party: ** Mattheson is trying to figure out why the ship crashed. Both engines are pretty trashed, but one is far more damage than the crash should have caused. The envelope is a charred wreck. He doesn't know enough forensics to tell more than that the fire was worst amidships. One of the engines overheated. ** Mattheson also finds 12 more dead people in the cabins. All have, of course, been tossed about the cabins. Some have splints and other have burn marks too. * Back at the search party: ** Curtis Anthony isn't all that interested in going. Felginer isn't either, but he feels he should since he speaks German. The group is Luo, Maxwell, Early, and Felginer. Early picks up on the trail pretty easily at first, but it becomes harder to follow. It continues west through the city. ** Early points out that there's one guy here who is running away from his companions, and we don't know why. Do we want to follow this guy around at night and in the dark? ** Instead, they carve a note into the wall of a building that invites them to food and medical attention at the camp. * Mattheson and Longfellow return to the expedition in haste. They report back having found 12 more dead people. Dr. Russel asks, "Did you find out their names?" (+1 XP?) * We eat and bed down. People sleep uneasily due to a lack of all the noise we're used to only tempered by the soothing sound of the canal. In that still silence, the four of us dream: ** Luo: He is a great healer who is surrounded by those he's helped. There is a sour note spreading through the crowd as the people he's healed wither and turn dark into gaping zombies before melting into sludge and bone, sinking into the earth. ** Maxwell: He's at home, glad his ordeals are over. He's aged greatly, but now he can relax with a glass of scotch. He hears a ticking from the room where he keeps all the photos he never intended to show anyone. His hackles start to rise as he approaches the door. He sees his photo album on the floor twitching as strange and horrible composite monsters come out of his photos, swarming over him as they burst free to take over the world. ** Thomas dreams of a pit full of ancient machine parts that Dr. Russel found for him. Thomas pulls out a snake he kept for this occasion and sacrifices it for the strength to move around the huge pieces to create something grand. ** Clayton has not slept well for as long as he can remember. The dangers and the temptations of corrupting power has made him nervous and paranoid. He awakens to an empty camp with a stirring at the edge. The expeditioners are there, strange and twisted, murmuring. They turn in one to him and being lurching towards him. All of them are twisted and mutated. He fires indiscriminately, forgetting to save one for himself, until he runs out and is brought down. He awakens screaming. * It seems that we awaken at roughly the same time, but no one else is disturbed. Early and Rice were on guard duty. Earl drifts over to Dr. Russel as he gets up to wash his face and checks on him. They talk a bit about how much safer it is here, and he goes back to sleep. November 28th * It's the next morning. We have three major tasks to do: 1. Search the wreckage and for survivors. 2. Set up the runway. 3. Get started on the archaeology & other science. * Dr. Bryce the botanist wants to check out the flowers. Dr. Dworkin is irritated at the lack of fish in the canal but wants to look at the ponds. Joan is going into the city with the archaeologists to look around. * Luo goes to search the ship. Dr. Russel stays and puts together a crew to get started clearing the runway with everyone else. ** Luo heads off to the airship to investigate the dead. There are many dead. There is a stairwell with a scent of corruption wafting up. The cabins have 12 dead bodies. All of the bodies have wounds from the impact. Some have knife wounds. Some have bullet wounds. Some have bruising, such as spot bruising around the throat. Several of their fingernails have bloody flesh under them. Some of them appear to have bite marks as well. 12 bodies in 9 of 10 cabins. Most were dead before the impact. * Luo finds a passenger manifest but not the captain's log. There are about 30 on the passenger/crew manifest. He also finds 3 more dead in the forward rooms. * Luo finds plenty of archaeological tools. The manifest indicates that this is most likely the Barsmeier-Falken expedition since both are on the list, and neither have turned up dead yet. One of the lower corridors is crushed, and there's a strong scent of decay. Looking through the portals from the outside, he finds more bodies. He tries looking around from another angle, but he can't open any of the doors; they are all crushed. ** Luo has crossed off 16 names plus 2 unknowns. That leaves 12 unaccounted for. * Back at camp, the runway is completed. We have lunch and everyone is grateful not to have been traveling through the jungle for hours; we eat heartily. Over the radio, we hear that the plane is setting out. * Luo sets off into the jungle to look for people by himself (after Dr. Russel told him to come back first). On a matched failure to track, he wanders into the jungle and is surrounded by four blond men with combat knives. ** They take his medical pack when he presents it to show his credentials. He tries speaking in English, Mandarin, and Latin but no go. ** As they talk between themselves, Luo sees that they're pretty rough off. They grab him, bind his wrists and then push him out in front of them out from the jungle. * Back at camp, we hear Moorehouse Bryce shouting in the distance. He calls out for us not to shoot and that he's coming into camp (from the city). After a couple of minutes, he comes out being held hostage by a rather manic looking man with brown hair and wide, white eyes, looking around quite frantically. ** At this point, everyone hears the buzz of an airplane engine overhead. ** The Germans give a cry and start rushing Luo towards the camp. ** The panicked figure looks toward the plane. Joan calls out, "Brian?" The man startles and looks back to her. "Joan?" ** Someone screams, "Oh my God, it's back!" There's something chasing the plane. It's large, with 1 1/2 heads, too many legs. It appears to be injured but has healed, and it's latched onto the wings. It's attacking one of the engines, though it takes some damage from the propeller. ** Dr. Russel asks Early to take a shot at it. He also says, "Mr. Fawcett, if you'd like to point that thing at something more worthwhile..." "There's nothing I can do about that thing. Not now." ** The plane's left wing is savaged, and it's streaming fuel. The creature lets go after two ineffectual shots. The creature sweeps around and grazes the back of the fuselage and take a chunk off of it. The plane hits the runaway. One wing is torn off, and it plows into the runway at a 30 degree angle straight on. ** A fire starts next to the plane from the cracked casing of the engine. The creature has whisked away and cannot be found. * 8 XP. +1 for Jeffrey for making Brad laugh by asking if Mattheson got the names of the dead people. Category:Session Logs